Get Cooking With Lara

Having been spoiled with gorgeous food growing up, Lara Battigelli has always had a great interest in food. Now, she has started her food blog ‘Lara’s Bites’ through which she provides fun, easy, and delicious recipes inspired by her childhood. She explains; “my dad is a great cultural mix of Indian and Italian so I was brought up around such a mix of flavours. My mam cooked more traditional Irish cuisine such as stews and roast dinners and my dad always cooked more ethnic foods so I really didn’t realise how special that was until I was older!” Her all time favourite meal being her dad’s Lamb Biriyani recipe with potato masala, Lara expresses her unawareness of the incredible food experience her dad provided; “I thought everyone had Vindaloo or gnocchi for dinner. My friends always loved coming to my house for food, now I understand why!”

Lara started posting all things food related on her personal social media channels, leading her boyfriend to suggest setting up an Instagram account dedicated to Lara’s talents; “I had been thinking about it myself for a while, but I think it took someone else validating me and telling me that they thought my recipes were good enough that gave me the push to finally do it. My only regret is that I wish I did it sooner and wasn’t so hesitant about putting myself out there. It’s a great pastime and has really helped me in lockdown.”

I love making recipes that everyone can make, even if they say that they “can’t cook.”

Despite her successful creation of various recipes, Lara does not consider herself to be an overly creative person in general; “ I find cooking very relaxing and a good creative outlet. I love trying out new flavours and love that there are no rules when it comes to cooking.” In the process of coming up with a new recipe, Lara emphasises that she enjoys taking her time to research lots of recipes; “it inspires me to come up with my own version of a recipe using flavours that I like.” The whole process of creating a new recipe is something Lara finds very relaxing most of the time, although she adds; “there’s always the odd disaster that doesn’t work out quite as you planned!”

Baked Camembert with Whiskey Honey & Rosemary

You'll Need:

1 Camembert Cheese

1 Tsp Whiskey Infused Honey

2 Tsp Garlic Infused Olive Oil

Rosemary

Salt & Pepper

To Make:

1) Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees Celsius

2) Score deep into the cheese with a knife horizontally and vertically so that you have space for all the lovely flavours to seep into the melting cheese when cooking

3) Sprinkle some salt, pepper, and rosemary on top

4) Drizzle with a large Tsp of honey and another 2 Tsp of garlic infused oil

5) Bake in an oven proof dish for 13-15 minutes

6) Enjoy with some crusty, toasted bread!